#onward fandom

Theme: Barley Lightfoot, Rock Star 🎸🎶

We’re "UP TO 11" as the trope says!

I’d best describe it in one word, and that’s chaos

and who better at being chaos than our very own Barley? Or rather Barley just being Barley? Or better yet...Barley rockin' out?!

Barley is, without a doubt, a rock star! from being an amazing and protective older brother/father figure to his baby bro, Ian to putting himself out there and not being afraid to be him! so here's a fanart collection of Barley showing off his awesome and lovable Barley energy! 🤘

and yes, I had planned to share this post last week, but as I said earlier I wanted to find more art for this particular theme, which luckily I was able to do! it's just too good!! so here's what I originally had in mind for last Friday—right here, right now 😉

Artists

jamie_phut - "on the guitar, Barley Lightfoot!" a taste of young Barley to kick things off! this redraw of him from the deleted scene is very well done! so cute and colorful! I love it!

starlight_crafter - this was drawn all the way back in 2019 right after the teaser trailer came out! I really like the style of this pencil drawing and even though we weren't sure what to expect of Barley yet at the time, this artist captures him and his vibe brilliantly!

cheesembs - I love the simple use of colors here and Barley's expression!! he really looks like he's into what he's playing here! this whole picture just makes me smile

cgbkart - ahhhh air guitar!!! this piece has such fun energy! and perfectly encapsulates one of Barley's many rules of questing: use what you've got. if there ain't no guitar or radio to make music, do it yourself!

umutciplak - I love how endearingly goofy Barley's smile is in this drawing! while also giving off the metal horns on both hands! to me it says: "it's all good, bro!" also his many pins are incorporated very nicely too!

van_thuart - I would hope that this would be the thumbnail for a potential hours long onward lo-fi music video because I'm getting those vibes with this drawing and its peaceful purple background specifically!

coma.troversy / @comatroversy - YEAH!!! that's just what I hear Barley yelling out when I see this piece. Cheering for his brother, listening and dancing to a banger track, accomplishing a heroic deed, you name it! there's so much personality here!

magnetoburrito / @magneto-burrito - ngl I really love seeing Barley in a sweatshirt! and yes I agree, he probably would listen to the band, Rush! I love how happy and chill he is in all of these drawings!

rustedbelt - I never really thought about Barley playing music on an acoustic guitar before but this is a very cool idea! he looks so at peace and relaxed strumming it here in this piece, it's very soothing!

I wanted to draw a drama with onward ...

alright so I've decided this week for Onward Fan Art Friday that I'd do something a little different...

tbh I kind of had a hard time deciding on a theme for my 11th edition—or "up to 11" I should say—post, so hopefully that'll be decided by next week (it most probably will)

so what's this week all about you ask?

well believe it or not, I had never owned ✨The Art of Onward book✨ until yesterday! i know...crazy, right? but I found my opportunity to finally get it when i saw that it was 45% off on Amazon. so instead of paying the usual 40 bucks, I only had to pay $21! it was good deal, I'd say. but yeah I had ordered it a couple days ago, it came in the mail yesterday, and as soon as I got my hands on it I read through the whole thing, carefully looked through every page, did some excited squealing every now and again lol...cue my daily I absolutely love this film, its world, and its characters so much speech...

it took me like three hours and all I can say is WHAT A RIDE. this is such an amazing book!!

Now I've seen a good number of the art in this book from previews or elsewhere on the internet, but there are also a ton of really cool pieces in here that I'd never seen at all before that I am just blown away by! it reminded me of the amazing onward fanart I only ever see on Instagram, and in turn—the purpose of my onward fanart sharing series

so whether you own the Art of Onward book or not, tonight I'm going to spotlight pieces from within it that caught my eye, deserve more recognition, and perhaps some analyzation (this is OFFICIAL onward art after all...)

and let me tell ya, picking just 10 pieces for this wasn't easy...everything from everyone in here is SO GOOD!

Artists

just a few quick pre-notes...

I did happen to catch the names of the artists in some of the angles, but others not so much, so I'm gonna credit them all down below like I always do anyway

I won't, however, put in links to instagrams this time around because some members of the fabulous onward crew don't have insta and instead either don't have social media at all or are on lots of other social sites (primarily LinkedIn), and/or have their own portfolio websites—all of which you can easily find by looking up their name in a Google search!

lastly, all the images above are taken from The Art of Onward book, specifically my Art of Onward book, and were captured using my iPhone 13 Pro

Noah Klocek, Production Designer - ahhh I love this! The gang's all here! Ian and all his friends, including Kagar it looks like! I've always wanted to see a character line up of these 6! and a 3D model of Kagar too!

Madeline Sharafian, Head of Story at Pixar - ok this gives off major levels of sassy Ian and I just love it! I wonder what he's being sassy about tho...like, is he telling someone off? is he claiming he can do anything he sets his mind to with his magic? I NEED CONTEXT

Chris Sasaki, Art Director/Character Designer - awwwwww young Barley reading young Ian a storybook! emphasis on AWWWWWWWW!!! this is a very small drawing but it really doesn't matter how big it is...this is absolutely precious!

Maria Yi, Character Designer - I really love all her character drawings of Laurel, but I also really enjoy what she made here! This is something every artist needs a reminder of every once in a while: that all characters are made up of simple shapes and it's a great place to start when going about drawing them!

Kristen Lester, Storyboard Artist - 🎵 wouldn’t you like to quarter own a beautiful vacation home? 🎵 i swear...that song, and these lyrics in particular, from the deleted scene just started playing in my head the moment i laid eyes on this piece! i think cause the sirens themselves are holding contracts lol

Grant Alexander, Character Designer - this drawing seems to imply that Ian and Barley were once going to meet the pixie dusters in an actual swamp instead of the swamp-like aesthetic that ended up in the final film...but I love this idea of them hanging out in a club or bar when they're not riding their motorcycles!

Nat McLaughlin, Art Director/Set Designer - this concept looks very epic but also very dangerous at the same time...while I wouldn't want to risk being in a train accident inside a volcano, the idea of looking out a window and watching lava bubble and boil while riding in a subway sounds like a very fun attraction!

Don Shank, Set Designer, and self-proclaimed to draw and paint - OH MY GOSH KEVIN!!! Kevin from UP is in this drawing!! I love Kevin! if they were thinking of giving her a cameo at the time the phoenix was going to be the final villain that would've been interesting!

Zaruhi Galstyan, Freelance Character Designer - this is a piece from Jenny's set of pages and all I wanna say is I really love this beautiful character design! she looks like an ancient nature spirit! and now I have to ask: do these creatures exist in the onward-verse?

I’m not going to necessarily repeat the things I have reblogged from my fellow quest masters just now cause tbh I couldn’t say what they’ve said better myself. What they’re saying is EXACTLY how I feel about this whole situation! 👏 👏 👏

but there are some other things I just want to get out in the open in regards to what’s been going on…

I didn’t join this fandom—or come here on tumblr or elsewhere—to wage in war, fight with people, or spread hate.

I come here because I find comfort in sharing my love of this beautiful comfort film with others who feel the exact same way as I do about it that's LITERALLY what I am here for and all I would like to be here for

cause if I’m being honest it’s really, REALLY hard to find that close by where I am in the real world and let me tell you, that just frustrates me to the core sometimes 😞

so i feel extremely lucky EVERY DAY that there are others in this world and around the world who see what I see in Ian and Barley and their story 💜💙

up until almost a year ago, I thought I was misunderstood and crazy for loving something that i believed deserved more love while others didn’t seem to agree, and deep down i was close to thinking that maybe they were right

but it turned out I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t as alone in this as I thought I was

and from the get-go @itsme-star has had my back since day one of joining this fandom

she’s thoughtful, supportive, loyal, their stories and OCs are absolutely wonderful, is a really great person to talk to when I want to talk about something, has always been there to pick me up whenever I'm feeling down, but most of all: she is one of the few individuals I know who’s encouraged me and others time and time again that this is a campaign worth fighting for!

so it really breaks my heart when they get all this undeserving hate, and KEEP getting all this undeserving hate 😢 💔

it's just...it's NOT RIGHT...it is soooooo not right

so bottom line: accusations and harassment towards genuinely nice people like Star who have done absolutely nothing wrong in this fandom is just unacceptable beyond words 😡

and I feel like something needs to be done about this...

like this shouldn't keep happening much less happen in the first place! This whole thing just makes me so mad that I become sad if that makes sense... 🤬 ➡️ 😭

we are a small fandom trying to bring justice to a magical world of wonder that already deserves so much better itself, the very last thing we need is for obnoxious frauds and rude liars to make us look bad!

Injustice, horrible people getting away with their horrible actions, disrespect, and anything along those lines are things I don’t stand for

but there is one thing for sure that I do and will stand for 💖

and that is Star 

I stand with Star 💫

Theme: Brotherly Love 💙💜

Annnnnd...we're back! Myself and this series!

For this glorious return, I'm highlighting Ian and Barley and how much they love and care for each other as brothers! If I had to pinpoint the one thing that makes this adventurous, exciting, magical world of wonder feel safe and warm to me, it's their beautiful brotherly bond and how it developed throughout the film! It doesn't take a genius to see that these elf bois mean a lot to me. Their story is just amazing and I've made it my goal everyday to spread my love for them and their world because they deserve so much and more! And this is coming from someone with an older sister who I want to say right now is the best older sister I could ever ask for! We may be on opposite sides of the country, but our sisterly bond is strong and I am forever grateful that she's always been a part of my life too 💕

But I also want to dedicate this post to a group of people who have always been there for me since day one of joining this fandom: The Quest Masters! (you know who you are 😉) I know I practically dedicate these posts to you guys every week but I want to this week especially because I did leave for almost two weeks believing that I was too much or not enough for you guys. But this week I realized that we are all valuable members of this fandom! Each and every one of us has so much to share with each other and it's all really amazing! So from the bottom of my heart, thank you guys for having my back and know that I will always have yours too ✨

Now ONWARD to the fan art!

Artists

rirka_666 - ahhhh!! the tears streaming down Ian's face! and the way Barley is tenderly holding him! this is sooooo precious!

ara.gotham.art / aragothamart - i love the chalky pastel aesthetic of this one! oh and the bros' smiles? adorable!

greenteareigns - I'm reminded of how much the lightfoot bros and their care for each other is my sunshine when I look at this piece ☀️ and the caption? yes I definitely agree!

imaplatypus_arts / @imaplatypus-art - I love the double spiked bracelets on Barley! and the details on their faces! And the detail of this piece overall! this totally captures what I&B's brotherly dynamic is like on a daily basis!

goblinsnhoblins - I'm squeeeeeeeing for this squeeze!! It's simply everything and more! Barley loves his baby bro SO much!!!

zesty_otter - I really love the clouds and the pink sky in the background! And Barley's vest patches! The druid one is one of my favorites of his and it's exceptionally great here!

goldyxz - Barley carrying Ian up to his chest? now this is a brotherly brothers' hug if I ever saw one! and their expressions and pencil/pen detail are both really awesome!

graceful_artist - awwwww! they just look so happy to be in each other's arms!! this is really beautiful! also really love the pink that's blended on their eyelids, ears, and noes!

hallejadeart - this drawing is really cute! the marker really captures the charm of their brotherly bond and in how far they've come!

I was bored this morning, so I randomly decided to compile a list of holidays we in the small dedicated Onward fandom celebrate...

Feel free to comment and/or reblog any dates I’m missing! 💬 🔁

January 13th

Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Birthday

March 6th (2020)

Onward’s Anniversary

April 10th

Siblings Day

May 20th (2022)

The Day Onward Cameoed In A Major Disney Crossover Movie

May 24th

National Brothers Day!

May 25th

Octavia Spencer's Birthday

May 30th (2019)

Onward Teaser Trailer Day

June 1st

Tom Holland's Birthday

June 21st

Dan Scanlon's Birthday and Dan Scanlon Day in general ;)

Chris Pratt's Birthday

August 2nd

Barley’s Birthday (declared)

September 18th

Ian’s Birthday (declared + semi-confirmed by Dan Scanlon)

October 10th (2019)

Onward 1st Official Trailer Day

December 12th (2018)

Title & Cast Announcement Day

December 17th (2019)

Sooooo...I don't think I've happened to mention to you guys yet that I'm taking a public speaking class this semester, and that one of our assignments is an oral persuasive speech, but anyway...

Call me crazy, stupid, or in love but I am going to try and convince, oh I don't know, a room of 20 people that Onward is an underrated masterpiece and that it deserves more attention 😅

Yeah, that's right, I'm going there.

The boldness factor isn't stopping at making several flashcard ads for my 33-chapter fanfic and posting them all over my college campus! The revolution continues! ✊

Like for real tho, as soon as I read this assignment on the syllabus in the first week, the idea of Onward being my topic just came to mind immediately!

It's definitely something I can talk about freely without reading words directly from a piece of paper AND something I can talk about with LOTS of enthusiasm!

But the challenge for this will be keeping my persuasion under 7 minutes cause that's the maximum time limit I've got for this...

Not to mention retaining what I've learned from this class, keeping my blind audience interested, and not giving any spoilers away 🤔

So yeah! I'm SUPER excited I can finally tell you all about this! This has honestly been in the cards for about a week or two now 👉👈

But I didn't want to say anything until I got the date I'm presenting, which luckily my prof revealed just today and...

I'll be giving the speech this Thursday the 7th at around 3:45pm EST!

So until then, I'll be continuing to chug away at making this the best speech ever! ✨